Tuesday, 10 August 2010

William Oddie has commented on the gathering evidence that (in the US, at any rate) the Catholic Church is (and has been) in fact a far safer environment for children than most other institutions that have contact with them.

The information has been out there for some time Father, at least here in the US. But it is routinely ignored by the media. We've known for a long time that abuse in schools is around 10% but lawyers don't go after the schools because there is a cap on awards - so for lawyers there's "no money" in pursuing it. Additionally, abusive teachers have been shuffled around schools for decades - so where's the outrage about that?

For much of the past decade the Church in the US has been cowed by the constant revelations. Any defense or drawing attention to the fact of greater abuse in other organizations was greeted with charges of 'downplaying', 'avoidance of responsibility' or 'changing the subject'.

Only recently has the Church found her voice again and drawn attention to the disparate treatment of abuse in society. Archbishop Dolan of New York recently took the New York Times to task publicly for highlighting decades-old incidents of Catholic abuse on the front page above the fold, while relegating more recent abuse in other organizations (in this case the the NY Jewish community) to the back pages.

Right now the Catholic Church is the only organization which has addressed the problem system-wide. It's not perfect, but it is more than any other organization has owned up to so far.